Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear warhead in a photo released Sept. 3 by the Korean Central News Agency. AFPA North Korean nuclear scientist who defected to China has killed
himself after being forced home, taking poison in a state security cell
while awaiting interrogation, RFA has learned.

The defector, a
researcher in the physics center of the State Academy of Sciences in
Pyongyang, was one of a group of North Koreans detained in Shenyang
city, China, on Nov. 4 and sent back on Nov. 17, a source in North
Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service this week.

“He killed
himself only a few hours after he was placed in solitary confinement at
the State Security Department in Sinuiju city” just across the border
from China, RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He died before he could be questioned about the reasons for his
escape, who had helped him, and what his route had been,” he said.

“He
must have been searched many times while being taken from China to
Sinuiju, so it’s a mystery how he was able to conceal the poison he
took,” he said.

The defector, who led a research team at the
physics center at the State Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang’s Unjong
district, had reportedly taken vacation leave from his job “because he
was showing signs of anxiety over his research projects,” the source
said.

“Suddenly, he visited relatives near the border without
letting his family know and without carrying valid documents for travel.
And when he learned that the authorities were looking for him, he
simply disappeared.”

Security officials are now trying to
discover how the scientist was able to cross the Tumen river into China
and join up with other defectors, he said.

High-level sources in
North Korea identified the defector in early December as Hyun Cheol Huh,
aged in his early 50s, RFA’s source said.

“But we don’t know if this was his real name or not,” he said.

“Generally, State Security will use numbers or fake names when referring to important persons [in their custody],” he said.

For
some reason, the defector had kept it to himself that he was a nuclear
scientist when he was captured by the Chinese police, who had been
tipped off to the group by a North Korean state security agent posing as
a defector, the source said.

“If the Chinese government had
known who he was, they would have wanted to learn what he knew and would
never have sent him back,” he said.Reported by Sunghui Moon for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Richard Finney.Source: